Materialists Review

Materialists is Celine Song’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut, Past Lives. This time, she looks at the pitfalls of modern dating in New York City.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a successful matchmaker for a high-end matchmaking service. During the wedding of one of her successful matches, Lucy meets two men: Harry (Pedro Pascal), a handsome venture capitalist, and John (Chris Evans), a struggling actor and Lucy’s ex-boyfriend. Lucy slowly develops a relationship with Harry, a dating unicorn, even though she believes they are not a match.

Materialists has been described as a romantic comedy-drama. It has the setup for a mainstream romcom, and it would be easy to imagine a trailer starting with narration saying ‘Lucy is the best matchmaker, but there’s one person she can’t find love for: herself.’ Even though A24 distributed Materialists, it could appeal to a broader audience due to its setup, and it featured Madame Web, Mr. Fantastic, and Captain America.

Materialists had moments of wit as Lucy handles her clients’ unrealistic expectations. She was dealing with people wanting to go on dates with young, attractive high earners. Lucy was selling a fantasy, telling potential clients that she could help them find someone they could grow old with. Lucy saw things from a statistical viewpoint and worked her way backward. She also had to act as a saleswoman in case she found a match that didn’t tick all the boxes.

As the film progressed, it developed a more cynical outlook on relationships and love. This was where Materialists appealed to me since it reflected my views on romance. Lucy saw relationships as a transactional affair where it’s all about looks, age, and income. Love, personality, and compatibility seem to be afterthoughts. Lucy did act a bit like Charlotte in the Frasier episode “Match Game,” where she set up Frasier with every client she had in the hope something would stick. People with wealth could game the system to make themselves more appealing.

Lucy’s own view was that she wanted to marry a rich man since she had grown up poor. When Lucy was with Harry, she was trying to talk him out of a relationship since her biological clock was ticking. She said Harry could go out with a woman ten years younger than Lucy.  Lucy became more jaded as the film progressed. This was illustrated when she attended a wedding and offered her own version of the vows.

Celine Song started her career as a playwright, and she used that experience when making Materialists. There were long conversations and monologues as characters debated and philosophised about relationships. They were shot in long, unbroken takes, making Materialists a more theatrical experience. Eagled-eyed viewers will notice a reference to one of Song’s plays.

Materialists took aim at the shallow nature of modern dating; sadly, the filmmaker’s examination was only surface-level.